Negative Attract Positive? Not in this case.

To those readers who are concerned abt me, I got my fairy tale ending that I wanted! YES, man! Ooo hooo!!! I can close the final chapter of my working life in my company soon. Thank you to those who has helped me :D

Just read a good friend's blog that I have been rubbing negative energy around, haha, apologies my dear friend. I guess there is a certain amt of inexperience to blame on but anyway, should quit complaining too much and stop spread negative energy around to my friends! THIS IS SUPPOSE TO BE A MOTIVATIONAL BLOG!!! Haha!

Ever been to a gathering before and in the end it becomes a slugfest? As to people try to compete who got the worse job, worse boss, worse bf/gf? Haha, sounds familiar, you bet it does. Seems like this is a way of getting attention. But this type of attention, do you serious want it or not? At the end of the day, you are still stuck on your job, your gf/bf, your boss. And so what if you win lor, I think u only make other people happy for a while but when they go back to their jobs or gf/bf, the same old feeling of lousiness is back. Negative energy beget negative energy.

Why not do something constructive lah? Discuss abt getting rich, how to get rich, why people can be rich and healthy, how to help more people with least amt of effort and time. The more brains discussing it, the more sparks there are and who knows you might realise something in the end. Complain abt the govt once in a while to build rapport with friends or get things going, but after that try talking abt something constructive lah. Of course this would depend on the crowd that you are in but it does not mean you cannot choose the crowd that you want to be in. If you want to feel positive in life, stay with positive people, attract their positive energy and feel confident!

Get out as well, to meet more people, learn from people, how people behave, why they talk in this manner. Knowing more people can also open up many opportunities for you. Stay at home during the weekend, you ended up having a competition with friends again as to who has the worst, over MSN. And it just adds to your monotonous week which is 5 day working 2 day stay at home and 5 day working and 2 days stay at home. Damn boring leh. STEP OUT!!! I feel there are many things to learn even if you step out of your house for 5 mins. Like I mentioned, what you need is a open mindset first then open up your senses, I am sure you would realise/learn something that you never thought of it before. Well you can say can surf the internet to learn but chinese have a saying "To read a thousand books is nothing compared to travelling for a thousand miles." So to be able to be in the environment is better than to read abt the environment.

Be and Stay Positive! I am positive I will make it big in life and able to have tremendous positive impact on other people! Cheers!

Assumptions, Assumptions

Just came back from tea brk with some friends of mine. No idea how the topic came about but was talking to assumptions and how it runs people's life. Like I mentioned in my blog before, our life needs assumptions (reasonable that it) so that we can run our life without considering too much.

For example, when you are sent an email and was required to reply, the assumption here is that the sender is waiting for an email reply. But this is not necessary what is required because the other sender may actually want to talk to you in person.

If there are no assumptions in life, life is going to be tougher than what it is. Because there are so many things that you need to verify before you can make your decision and by that time, circumstances could have changed, especially in this dynamic world! And you will need another round of verification again to start making the new decision.

But sometime, we really need to sit down and have a look at the assumptions we made once in a while. Are they relevant now? On what basis these assumptions are made? How far is reality away from what is assumed?

A few mths ago, I have been a victim of a string of assumptions made, most assumptions were made by me of course. The thing is I should have realised that the assumptions that I have made need verification. These particular assumptions need verification. If they had been verified, things would not have took a down turn. But that has happened so on the bright side, at least I have learned a valuable lesson. There are many types of assumptions, some critical that really need verification, some not so critical and you can just assume to be that way, some that may change with time and other that may need changes depending on situations. People must really sit down and think it through which grp each assumption is in and is it time to move it to another grp.

Food for thoughts? Of cos, coming from me. Cheers!

End or Means?

No no, this is not an English Lesson. I am not going to explain what each word means in the title. Coming back this is the fourth successive day, I have been writing my blog, is my brain going into overdrive here or what? Scary!

Anyway, what I want to write abt is to clear some misgivings about money. A lot of people see money as bad because a lot of people use it to do bad things as commonly seen in drama or people commit crimes either for passion or for money. Or people in pursue of money, start neglecting their families and friends or risk their health so that they can earn more money. Or another scenario where people earn a lot of money but still not happy but lost a lot of other intangible stuff that money cannot buy. So people have a feeling that having a lot of money is bad but it is a necessary evil that must be had, but not in large amt, so that we can earn ensure our survival.

It is true that I have seen such cases be it in drama or real life, but is that truly the case? Is money really all that bad? If u look carefully, money is like a car, money is like a computer. It is a means to an end. For example, ask yourself this, why do you work on this job?? To earn money? Of cos, but what is the motive behind earning money? To ensure survival? Of cos, but then what is the motive behind for wanting to earn more money? Some may say to spend more time with family, provide comfortable life for family, go to that dream vacation, achieve dreams and so on. If these are the motive that you have, that means, money to you is a means to an end. Such ends I agree need money to achieve but those that are more important to you does not.

Want to spend more time with family? Well as long as you strictly stick to the schedule and not let other things take up the time you have set aside for your family, you can still spend time with your family without earning a big fat income.

Want to feel happy? Well there are a lot things that does not need money to buy happiness for yourself, think and you can find things that make you happy and does not require a lot of oolahs.
If you see money as a end itself, then you might be loss in its pursuit and in the end lose more than what you want. But if you see it as a means to an end, then you have free yourself from the clutches of money, you do not let it run your life. So think, is money to you a means or and end?

Cheers!

What has Pluto got to do with goal making??

Just finish watching the documentary on Pluto, the question the documentary was talking abt was, 9 or 8 planets in the solar system with Pluto being in question. Throughout the whole documentary, the problem is the definition. If the definition is settled upon, then the problem of including Pluto in as a planet in the solar system or not is solved. Now the problem is that settling on the definition is difficult, because it is not straightforward. Size, shape whatever, the definition was not straightforward.

Coming back, how do you know whether you are successful or not? :) No idea? How do you know whether you achieve your goal? No idea? Well maybe it is time you give a definition to success. A straightforward definition would be good. Compare the goals below:

1) To lose weight by end of Sept
2) To lose 10 kg by the end of Sept

Now supposedly before you start on your weight loss program, your weight is 80kg and after the whole weight loss program you go through to the end of Sept, you weight is 79.5kg. Now according to the first goal, you are successful in achieving your goal but compare that to the second goal, you have failed.But touch your heart and ask yourself, would you be happy with achieving the first goal? No way. If you achieve your second goal then you will be happy and it is clear cut whether you have achieve or not.

In any goal setting class that you attend, the coach would always tell you to set very definitive and stretch goals. So this is how you set it. You got to have as many numbers in your goals as possible. Only with numbers would you be able to gauge whether you have a stretch goals and whether you have reach your goals or not. Sounds simple? Well, it is coming up with the numbers that will be a bit of a problem. :)

So what do I mean by numbers? Well for example the second goal I wrote about. Losing 10kg (which is a number) by Sept (Another number). With a lot of numbers in your goal then you can be as clear cut as to whether you have achieved it or not. Another good example of a goal is "Going to achieve $10,000 per mth as income by the age of 30" Now this is clearcut, achieving an income of $9,999 per mth by age 31 is not achieving the goal, achieving an income of $10,001 by age of 31 is also not achieving the goal. Simple as that!

So time to start looking at the goals that you have set and see whether you have set definitive goals. Are they clear cut? Check that they are stretch goals as well, because your goals are clear cut now, you will know whether they are achievable or not. What no goals? You are steering your life boat without a direction! Start writing some now!!!

Have fun writing and achieving your goals! Cheers!

Another look at the Sphinx Riddle.

Just finish reading the Straits Times. The main feature articles is talking abt a group that is helping Men. Yes, you read that right, helping men! In the articles, it has a timeline talking abt what usually happen to Men in Singapore, for example when they are in their 20s what usually happen like starting a career, still have time for fun and exercise, when they are in their 30s, have found a partner to settle down, having a first child, reponsibilities at work has increased, when they are in their 40s, their kids are at the rebellious age and can be easily lead astray and many many more.

What I was looking at is actually three things, the income, the bills and family when I was going through the timeline. Income seems to be stagnant or so it seems to me because all along the timeline, at least 50% of the age grp are earning $1K to $4K per mth for ALL age grp. Which means most of the people does not have much income at all throughout their lives. What compounds this problem is the bills are ever increasing throughout the timeline, because of more mouths to feed, new flats, ever increasing kids education costs, transport costs and many more. Scary? Well sorry, there is more to it. Because so much effort is made to pursue a higher income job with disproportionate increase in responsibilities, your wife and kids may suddenly be very unfamiliar to you, the engine in your marriage could have died down. Romance may need rekindling which could take tremendous effort and in the end some ended up with divorce or separation. (Want to see some example? Check out the movie 'Click' by Adam Sandler). So you have stagnant income, increasing bills and family problem to contend with.

Got a solution?? Well, what you need is more time and money! Haha! Problem solved! What easier said than done? Of cos lah, but have you made the first step towards there or not? Or you don't feel the need at the moment? Life is still good, salary is good enough AT THE MOMENT? But I must warn you, if your salary is your main source of income at the moment, I can tell you that you are standing on one leg in your life and this leg is provided by your boss. :D And I don't think your boss have emotional attachment to you. If you cannot perform or sacking you is the way to get his business back on track, he will not hesitate to take that leg away from you and let you fall in life. Scary? Well like I mentioned, try to seek a second leg and make sure that second leg is your own leg. So at least when your boss decides to take away the 'borrowed' leg from you, you can still stand up in life and not fall. Then try growing another leg and another and another so that you can have more time for families and start to discover more sides of your beautiful wives and wonderful kids.

Take charge, extra income always offer you more choices in life and definitely can improve your life in one way or another; more income means more time for family, more income means more time for exercise and a healthy life, more income means more time for exercise means greater health and less burden to family, more income means more time to make new friends and find the feeling of love with your spouse again, and when you become good at creating a lot of income source, you can benefit the community by doing charity work or making donations, would that not make your life feel great and glad that this life has been well spent? Think abt it!

Cheers!

Who is your Puppet Master?

As mentioned, today is the day I go back to my office. On the way, I can finally sit down and 'enjoy' the TV Mobile (TV on the bus for those not familiar). One of the commercials was abt a programme that has a segment, hosted by puppets. Then something came into my magician mind. How intelligent is a puppet?? I know I know, asking a dumb question, puppet is a non-living thing but how can it have intelligence in the first place?? But looking from another point of view is, the puppet intelligence is equivalent to the puppet master, the one that is running the puppet. Think of it and see if I am correct.

Now potray this to your life. Assuming your life can be run by someone, who is running it? Your boss or you? Assuming it is run by your boss since most people are working. Now your boss will determine how you go about doing your job, he tells you how a report should be written, how the clients should be approached, tells you when you can knock off, how much income you receive per mth which this income in turn will determine what you get from it for your life. Why finally see the light and you do not like what you are seeing? Well I have more. Assuming your boss is someone of a higher intelligence or a open mindset, then your working life maybe smoother sailing then one whose intelligence is worst than you and does not have a open mind.
Cannot see the point? Supposedly, you have thought of a new marketing campaign for your company and you are very sure that it will work based on the research that you have done, but if your employer does not have the aptitude to perceive the success of this campaign, does not like the idea, it is very unlikely you can start the campaign at all. Get the point? :)

Now what if your life is run by you. You are the puppet master of your life. Now the increase in intelligence would benefit you far better than the same unit of increase in your employers intelligence. Why I said that is because your boss wants to give you the minimum income but you want to give yourself the maximum income. Get it? Which means that you reap the full benefit of increase in your intelligence while your boss will share most of it with you if you have a job :D

Of course I am not saying that you should quit your job and run a business or freelancing. Practice and gain intelligence while on a job. Once the amt of intelligence is able to support your daily affair with reasonable certainty, it maybe time to fully reap the benefits of your intelligence!

Cheers!

Stranger in A Familiar Land

Just came back to my old company after conducting training and done project for three weeks. Times flies, I was wondering will I be able to leave my good friends and lady for three weeks without seeing them at all. I guess I am back now. But the strange part is things looks very different now compare to three weeks ago. Even the colleagues seems a bit distant to me. But lucky thing during lunchtime we are still able to strike a good conversation because by coincidence we met at the new canteen to try out the Korean food. (Friends who are familiar, the Canteen 13 Korean food is not bad. Worth a try! ) So we talk abt Korean food and traffic condition in SEA ctries. Haha! The benefits of globalization allows us to know the situations in other ctries without stepping out at all. :)

I was wondering how to catch a glimpse of the lady but in the end, fate has it that we meet at the Canteen. Still as beautiful as ever and small eater, not much changes, thank goodness! (Was that a pair of earring she is wearing?? Or is she wearing one all along?) But situation still a bit awkward and we each strike a conversation on our own with other colleagues. Lousy ego problem of mine! Oh well. At least we had lunch together. (Still wondering....)

Even the General office at my company undergo some small 'surgery', almost cannot recognise the place at all. But as usual, I experience the warmth of our admin staff. Most of them noticed I have not been around for quite some time, I guess working relationship with colleagues is still quite good.

The best part is even in my own office I also feel very strange to be in. Haha, although my usual chair is still as comfy as ever. Well, still got a few weeks left before I make the final decision.

Meanwhile, cross my fingers and hope for the best! May my love life and career soar! Haha! :)

Cheers!

Will there ever be a fairy tale ending??

Going to leave my workplace soon. Nice physical environment, met a lot of friends especially three that have made positive changes to my life in one way or another. Would like to take this opportunity to thank them if they are reading the blog. To use the Chan Brother's slogan, " Life has never been the same since I started working there" :D

Thinking about leaving the place does make me sad cos I have been there for almost two years. I guess, I will miss the nice people there like the admin staff and other colleagues and friends that I have made during the two years. But I guess the time is almost up cos being an academic place and I have no intention to pursue a masters at the moment, so working there is a bit stagnant and moreover because it is a contract job, things aren't really that stable at all and I am not able to pursue my interest in Business Intelligence and combining Chinese Ancient Wisdom with Business. And moreover, there is this guy in my dept who seems to be picking up on me and throwing his weight at me (not literally of course or I would have been crushed by him. Haha!). Crazy guy, no idea is it because his enemy is my good friend that is why he pick on me. Like, I told many friends, he is a major push factor, in my decision to leave soon. If he weren't around, I might have stayed a little longer cos like I mentioned I like the physical environment there. But one has to give credit here as well, if it weren't for him I would not have gained a lot of knowledge in statistics.

During the two years there, I have learnt quite a lot in statistics, SAS software, sharpening my people skill and gain a lot of knowledge esp. abt health. (Thanks to one of the friends I mentioned above haha!) So I would not say that I did not spend the time there well enough. If I were not there, many doors that I have found open now would have been closed to me.

Like every story book, the author would always like to close the story with a very nice ending. And ending that is very close to a fairy tale ending, a happy ending. Much as I want to close the final chapter with something nice but I guess I maybe asking for a miracle. Many of you readers would have known that I have caused extreme hurt to a lady that I like (like only lah, don't extrapolate it to love, definitely not that stage yet.) A result of a lot of mistakes made but I guess I am the main culprit. Life is really a joker, thinking back the whole thing, I seriously do not have any idea whether to laugh or cry at it. Normally a person would not caused any hurt at all to the person he/she likes or loves, but I cannot believe Life played such a big joke on me. Now she and I are not talking at all. (Well, I am not at the workplace that often as well nowadays), I have no idea whether she is still angry with me at all. Sometime thinking back the whole thing really can make me feel down for a few hrs, but I guess this type of thing, I can only let time dilute it which goes the same for her.

All I hope now is that she will forgive me and we can still be friends before I leave the place. Now that would be a good ending but I guess I am asking for a miracle cos if I were in her shoes, and esp when the thing only happen a few mths ago, there is no way I would forgive myself. Sigh! Damn, why must life play such a big joke at my love life?

A colleague of mine was telling me a conversation that he had with another friend of mine. This friend was telling my colleague that my career is doing quite well the only thing that is missing in my life is a girlfriend. Haha, I guess he knows me very well. Same thoughts here, my friend but alas, if Life keeps on playing such jokes at me, I think I might be alone for the rest of my life.

To the lady, if you are still reading my blog, which I really hope you do, I hope to convey my apologies to you personally. I am extremely regretful about what I did. Causing such a hurt was never meant to be intentional, and I can understand that it is very unlikely you will forgive me. All I hope for now is that we can still be friends and would still have a chance to poke a straw into a bottled cup of mineral water for you.

Crossing all my ten fingers and hope I can close this final chapter with a good ending.

What you put is what you get!

Was looking back at the two years that I had been in my workplace. There were a lot of changes. People come and people go, faces change all the time even for high management posts. The only thing that did not change was the physical environment. The trees are still the same, the stairs, buildings, flowers, chairs and tables. They did not experience as much change as compared to the human environment.

Some thoughts came into my mind. Imagine my workplace being a container. The people that work at my workplace are the contents of the container while the physical environment is liken to the materials that are used to make the container cos most of the time it cannot be change, but the contents can. So what sort of thing you put into the container now is very impt. If you put in apples, then the container would look red, assuming a good container is a pristine glass one and a lousy glass is something that cannot see the inside. If you put in shit, the glass will be stained and the container would smell. Yucks!

A good container can be easily duplicated as long as you got money, meaning the physical environment can be duplicated as long as you have the money. But the people that you put in the container will determine whether the overall look or 'smell' nice or not. Even though u have a bad container but what you put in are gems and precious stones, the shine from the stones will still be able to penetrate out and make it nice and valuable overall. But if you have a nice container which you can see clearly what is inside and but you put shit in it, like I mentioned before, it is going to smell bad and look extremely ugly.

Potray this to your company, if you are the boss. What type of people are you staffing your company with?? Good people, or bad people? If you staff your company with a lot of incapable people, your company is going to suffer, even if you are able to provide a good image to your clients but if you staff your company with capable people, as long as you have a decent image provided to your clients, you are still able to secure businesses. The point here is that human resource, is being neglected by a lot of companies. Bosses must realise that it is the people that will make a difference to your business. Not your tables, chairs and computers. It is the people.

Potray the container to our life. If we put in the container anger, pessmism, complaints, bad friends, drugs, vices, bad health and other negative stuff, then how are we able to lead a good life with all these things in them (even if we started with a good container - born in a rich family)? But what if we put in our life, supportive friends or spouse, joy, happiness, optimism, love, good health and so on. Now our life will become more beautiful even if we are not born with a lot more resources on our hand (bad container).

Food for thoughts?? Better check all the containers that you have with you, see what type of contents have you put inside.

Cheers!

Come on you want more, you have to make me happy

Just finish conducting training. The class is big around 10 people coming from all walks of life. What I like abt teaching this class is they are responsive and ALL of them are friendly people. So teaching this class makes me happy, since I know base on their reponses and questions, they are learning something, allowing me to know that I have made a positive impact on their lives. :)

In Singapore a lot of people are sent to training, because our population is the only resource Singapore has. So we must keep on improving ourselves so that the economy would grow and the our jobs are more secured.

I have been a trainer and a trainee before. So I am putting some thoughts here. I would like to appeal to those trainees is try your best to be responsive to your instructor. When your instructor ask a question, answer him, no worries if you got the answer wrong, you are there to learn. Whether it is a correct or wrong answer, it tells your instructor something. So at least your instructor does not have to second guess what you know and what you do not know. If he needs to spend thoughts and effort to think whether you understand him, it would add a burden to him which would not be good.

If you don't add the burden to him, he might be happy and comfortable enough to teach you more than what the course requires, which I think is good since you do not have to pay for the course (or even if you have to pay, that means u are getting more than what you paid for) and you get to learn more which can make your work easier. I for one would definitely teach more than what is required if I do not have to worry too much and the class atmosphere is good.

Secondly, I know training is a time where you can be away from work for a while to relax a bit, do some catch up with frens (thru MSN :P). But please, also show some respect for your trainer. The trainer is there to help you improve but if you do not show respect for your trainer, by showing a snub face if he is unable to answer your qn or not listening to him and so on. You only make the trainer 'hate' you more and less willing to teach you properly which could spoil your training objectives. And if your training objectives is not reached, your boss is going to breathe down your neck which might not be good.

The atmosphere of the class is not influence by the trainer only, the trainees also plays a part in making the training an enjoyable one as well. And sometime if the class if small, these type of 'unhappiness' or 'hostilities' can be contagious which can spoil everyone's mood.

Some pointers for would-be trainers, please come prepared for training, I know NO ONE can be fully prepared for training, but should still have the decent level of knowledge when conducting training. If you do not know, pls don't pretend that you know to 'save face'. Not advisable cos you will be exposed sooner or later. During exercise time, when trainees are doing exercises, you definitely can relax a bit but should later be prepared for the next lesson. Not sit down there and shake leg. Can think of how to make the next lesson easily understood by the trainees which will make your job easier.

So hope this pointers will help trainers to have 'easier' trainees and trainees have better 'trainers'.

Cheers!

All work and no play make anyone a dull guy

Recently, one of our admin staff was trying to arrange an outing for the whole place I am working at. Well, response is poor as expected. Why? Because firstly, the Head of the office is not there to lend support, and for my workplace, I seldom see or hear colleagues go out during the weekend or go out for a simple dinner, don’t even say for the whole centre. For my cliché, it is always the common few that go out for dinner together. (Kudos to her for being persistent in arranging outings for all workplace colleagues.)

At my workplace, people cannot wait to get home when the clock shows knock-off time. (Typical of any public sector jobs.) No one wants to stay back to work for even one nano-second to finish their work. They just want to go back home ASAP. Being an employee, of course, I want to go home early but I think a company that has staff not rushing home but strolling or finished what is left then go home is healthier. Workers rushing home goes to show that the workers in the company are there just to earn a living. There is no passion or pride in the work they do.

Once the leash of time has been released, they do not want to stay in this ‘dreadful’ (in their opinion) place. There is no sense of belonging. If this is the case, I think the leaders are not doing right; they should foster a sense of belonging, a sense of identity. But apparently that is not seen in my workplace. People are not proud or want to be seen as part of the workplace, which I think is really very sad, and it is not a good sign if it is seen in a private company. My department/workplace had to find people form teams to compete with other departments but it was so difficult to organize it because firstly, the leader did not rally, only sponsor T-Shirts, and secondly like I mentioned, no sense of belonging. If both condition had been met, I am sure our admin staff would not have difficulty finding ‘volunteers’ to form teams and participate in the competition.

To create a nice workplace, fun and work has to be balanced and to have them both, maybe a sense of identity and belonging should be fostered. How to foster is definitely not easy, but it is definitely a necessary trait that should be seen in good leaders.

Sad to say, my workplace has a very good physical environment, but human environment… shan’t say too much. :)

Cheers!

Complaining, exercising my Singaporean Traits

Just went to Batam for a one day tour with a grp of Indonesian friends during National Day. Nice trip and met with nice people. Been to two temples, seen a huge statue of Goddess of Mercy, took a boat ride to Batam to and fro and seen many things. Rode on roads without any road lightings, had seafood at an offbeat area. Very good experience. I feel that I have recharged half of my batteries. I always like going overseas, to see many things that we do not see in Singapore. But everytime I go to overseas, I feel that Singaporeans are too comfortable.

For example, I doubt even a seasoned driver in Singapore would be able to handle the roads of Batam or Indonesia. Singaporean eat at hawker centres which are extremely clean but sub-standard in terms of quality . (The stalls with cleanliness rating 'B' has increased according to a Straits Times article) while Taiwanese and Indonesians have roadside food which taste superb but damn dirty, in Singapore standards (would love to try the Thai's roadside stalls). Transport in Singapore is definitely world class, but the amt of money we pay for it, well according to many articles is low (but that is compared to big cities with huge history compare to Singapore) but compare to Taiwan is expensive.

Taiwanese are hungry 'predators' when it comes to business, be it any small or big ones. Singaporeans??Doubt so! In Singapore, to set up a stall, u have designated areas and sometime licences to apply. In Taiwan?? All u need is a quick pair of legs and a blanket and u can start business. Food that are to be sold cannot be made at home, in Singapore. Other ctries? No such rule, from what i know. With a huge amt of competition in Taiwan, there are a lot of creativity but of cos we also see the bad side of competition as well in Taiwan, relating to the media and print industry there.

So well, it is true that Singapore is a great place to live in, but in my opinion it is for retirees. Youngsters like us, we may get too comfortable and lose our ambitions and dreams. Youngsters like us should keep on expanding our comfort zone, be exposed to many things, like culture, living lifetstyle, thinking, history, races and many more.

Sad thing to say, I have been in this world for close to 30 years but the number of ctries I went to is less than what I want. Looking at the many documentaries, there are so many beautiful places, man-made and natural wonders, glorious food, rich history, culture and arts. Life is short to enable one to see them all, but I will try my best to see, feel and hear them as much as possible. Of course, all these experience could be even nicer if I can enjoy them with my family and the lady I love, but I guess at the moment now, with things looking bright (or at least at the moment) in my career, I doubt I can have time for Love. Sigh!

Ok, enough complaining abt life in Singapore and my life. Need to get to work to improve whatever I can abt my life! Thank you for lending me a listening ear (or watchful eyes?).

Cheers!

My life is like a DVD??

Just saw the movie "Click" by Adam Sandler. Good movie! So what would you do if you can fast forward to parts of your life where you enjoy and just leave the lousiest part to your "Remote Control Self"?

Like I mentioned a lot of times to my frens, life is like a roller coaster without any tracks, you never know when you are going up or going down, which if you think it properly, makes your life more exciting and something to look forward to. And if you are lucky and have the correct mindset, you can even determine how many ups and downs you can have on your life roller coaster. Of course for a life roller coaster, we would want more ups then down, but when is up an up and when is down a down?? It must be measured relatively right? It is up when you move from down to up and it is down when you move from up to down. :D

In life, we need the 'up's to make us appreciate the down, learning from the lesson it generates and we need the 'down's to make us know how valuable an 'up' is. Imagine a roller coaster that keeps on going up, very boring in my opinion.

But it does not mean that you keep your down, the longer the better, you only need a bit of down to enjoy your up most of the time. Your life should be like a stock that keep on going up with occasional downturn so that you can move up further.

Another thing from the movie. Have you worked too hard that you neglected your family? A family does not build on material comfort alone. Material Comfort only forms one of the pillar of Family. Warmth, Care, Concern and Forgiveness and others form the other pillars.

Work is needed to settle bread and butter issues, but working to provide material comfort for family in return, not spending enough time with family, should be a no-no. We should not neglect our family. Work and earning money is secondary because there is no way you can earn all the money in the world. If you study economics, you would know that a lot of money is generated in this world and if you want to earn all the money in the world, it is ridiculous. Money is replaceable,but the time you spend with your family is definitely not replaceable at all, in fact it is priceless. Now that is a good gift to share with your family, YOUR TIME.

Moral of the blog: 1) If you cannot remember when your family did something together, start to reschedule and provide more time for your family, remember they are irreplaceable as well.

2) Learn to appreciate the ups and downs in life, there are definitely there for a reason.

Cheers!

What? No full refund??

Tiring day, but I remember this story that was told to me last week and I think I should share it with as many people as possible. So despite having a very tiring day, I decide to pull myself from my bed and to my working table to write this. I hope it would make more people jump up and take action to take care of their health.

I was on my way to Bugis last Saturday and happen to chat with an old guy who is travelling on the same bus as me. How we are able to strike a conversation, I cannot remember. All I remember is he was asking me for bus directions. Anyway, he was telling me he came from Sabah and was here in Singapore on a short trip. He was telling me the health challenges he had. When he was young, due to the nature of his job, a construction worker, he has to work at sites that have loud noises. He did not take care of his ears during his stronger years, and he started feeling the loss of his hearing strength. He was starting to become deaf. Being desperate, he spend his savings which is abt $20K to see doctors to gain back his hearing strength. But alas, the doctor told him because his ears has been exposed to loud noises continuously for a long period of time, there is no way he can get back his full hearing strength anymore. In summary, he spend $20K to gain back his hearing but could not get it back to normal.

He told me he regretted not taking care of his health, spending such a huge amt of money to treat his hearing but still not able to gain it back fully. I was wondering why such a msg was passed to me in such a way, out of nowhere an old guy came and share with me his health challenges. Maybe to allow me to share with my readers a real life story of not taking care of one's health? ;)

Moral of the story is one should really do MAINTENANCE to their health and not hope for REPAIR.

Like I mentioned so many times, when we 'repair' out body,there is a reasonable chance we are not able to gain back the full functionality anymore. For example, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer and so on because usually it would be too late and too little we can do when we discover we have such illnesses.

And the worst thing is because of these illnesses, you would have spend an estimated $30K or more to treat it and still NOT able to gain your full health and normal lifestyle back. Assuming you spend only $30K to treat your illnesses and still not able to gain full body function. Would it not be better to spend $30K on supplements to reduce the chance of contracting the illnesses and still have a fit and healthy body to work and move around with?? $30K, assuming you spend $200 per mth on supplementation, would mean it can supply you12.5 yrs of supplements. That is a lot.

People who are sceptical abt supplements usually say "Why have expensive urine?" "Why be so paranoid?" "Popping pills is a sign of weakness." Well my answer to all these scepticism is , at least I would not have huge regret, like the old man above for not taking care of my health and ended with a less than normal body functionality and empty pockets.

Those who are sick so often, please PLEASE start taking good care and maintenance of your health. Supplement wisely, start exercising and eat healthily.

Cheers!

Which stick to pick up?

Just want to share a story with all my readers.

Adam, Ben and Charles was sentenced to three years jail because of the crime they committed. On their first day at the prison, the Head Warden said: "I am going to grant you one request each, please think it properly, before you make the request!"

Adam without any thoughts said: "I would like to have 10 cartons of cigars, please!"
Ben, be a romantic person [or possessive person :P]: " I would like the company of my wife with me throughout my jail term." [Hei, if you are able to find such a nice girl willing to share woe with the person she likes, please let me know :P]
Charles took a long while thinking abt the request and he said: "I would like a handphone please so that I can communicate with the outside world."

Head Warden grant them their request after hearing them.

Three years has passed and they are released out. Adam rush out of his jail cell and ask the guards for lighter. He has been staring at the 10 cartons of cigars without lighting them because he forgot to ask for a lighter.

Ben came out of his jail cell with three children, the consequences of requesting that his wife joined him in his jail cell.

Charles came out of the jail cell, with a big smile on his face! He walked up to the Head Warden, shook his hands and said: "Thank you very much for granting my request. With the handphone, I am still able to run my business from my jail cell and I have managed to triple my turnover during the three years. I decided to give u a car as a show of my appreciation and thanks for making this possible. Thank you!" The Head Warden's eyes almost want to drop out after hearing this.

Moral of the story: Ask for a handphone when you are in jail? Of course not, wise guy! Haha! It is just a way of showing that the decisions we made NOW, will decide what we become in the future. To put it another way, what you have achieved now is a result of your past decisions that you made! If you are meeting with health or financial challenges, it is because of the decisions you have made in the past like, don't save up, don't seek better investment, don't eat healthily, don't do exercise, drink a lot of soft drinks.

One must realise the fact that decision forms one end of the stick and consequences form the other end. Relevant action form the body of the stick. Consequences will shape what we look like, achieved or experienced. Which stick you decide to pick up, there is no way you can choose another consequences that you want. They come in a package! So please take note of that.

Start reviewing some of the impt decisions that you have made. Assess their possible consequences. Are the consequences something that you want? If yes, take action NOW or assess whether you are on the right track. If not, it is time to change and make a new decision.

Cheers!

Aren't they twins?

Just came back from temple and suddenly this qn pop into my mind. (I was wondering did I inherit a magician's brain, how come qns keep on popping up :P) The qn is "Success and failure, which has more things to learn from?" Now many literature and biographies says that Failure has more things to learn from. Is it true? Why is there more things to learn from? *scratch head* Because we have paid a price for our mistake thus it has more things to learn from? What abt success? We also pay a price for success, don't we? Let's have a look at both of them.

Failure is usually something we have paid a price for it and gained nothing tangible back, but if we are able to find out the reason why we fail, then we would have gained something intangible back. Failure usually is very difficult to stomach especially in Singapore where failure is seen as a stigma in life. Once u fail, the failure will usually stick to and haunt you for the rest of your life. Unless you are able to turn the tables around and score a huge success, then your past failure seems to amplify your success in many people's eyes.

Failure being difficult to stomach, not a lot of people are able to accept it and by not accepting it, they fail to realise to first step of finding out the reason why they fails. And even if you are able to accept your failure, you have to spend sometime thinking out what is the reason you fail and human psychology is such that you start blaming other people and not ownself, taking immense effort to bring your thought process to find out the actual reason of failure and what share of the failure you should account for. And even if your truly found out the crux of your failure, unless you paid a very high price for it, chances are, you may be back to your old ways and commit the same mistake but maybe in another circumstances.

So coming back, now I realise why they said failure has a greater lesson to learn from, because it takes a lot of effort to realise the actual reason of failure, judging by the realization process mentioned above. And during the process, you actually go through a self realization process, knowing more about yourself, how your thinking is wired and how you behave. So I guess there is a lot to learn in Failure.

Success is something a lot of people want, mostly for material success and once that is succeeded they move on to what Maslow call "Self Actualization" needs, achieving spiritual success. So is there anything to learn from success? I think there is a lot also. Let's go thru the process.

Success usually means something have been done right. So you have to find out the reason why you succeeded, learn from it and try to apply to other areas you want to achieve success. Success can come with minimum effort and maximum result and usually it comes with tangible and intangible benefits. So even if you do not realise the reason why you succeeded, you already have something to gain from. This usually distract people from thinking what is the reason for success and repeat it again, because they have gained something already and too comfortable to spend more time finding it out.

Again, some self effort has to be made to make yourself sit down and find out the reason of success. And again human psychology is such that you attribute the whole of success to yourself and because of this u realise that it is inbuild in you and you think it can be repeated again. So in the end, people would rather just enjoy what they have gained from their success and forget abt finding out the reason for success. So it seems like why success does not have much to learn from is because people choose not to learn more. They only just want to enjoy the success they have. It is a matter of choice. But i must say I am not advocating u do not enjoy your success. You should enjoy it because it does not come easy. Do spend some time finding out what you did right and "imprint" in your brain and repeat it to enjoy more moment of success.

So it seems like failure has more things to learn from compared to success, but both is a matter of choice and good self-restrain and if I have my way, I want to learn from both :D

Have fun learning both. Cheers!

What your doctor does not know abt Nutritional Medicine may Be Killing you!

Since so many of my friends are reading this blog, I would like to recommend a book to all my friends. As most of you know, I advocates good health through healthy eating, supplementation and exercise.

And when I mentioned supplementation in my previous blogs, I gave some advice on how to supplement wisely. Find out from our family history, what risk you are most likely to have, what illness you cannot afford to have and so on and supplement accordingly. Recently, I come across this book titled "What your Doctor doesn't know about Nutritional Medicine may be Killing you" by Dr Ray D. Strand. He himself is a medical practitioner and have seen how nutritional supplements have give his wife's life back when drugs are not able to.

There are some mentioned of the top killers illnesses, like heart disease, cancer, lungs, diabetes and so on; how it happened in our body, how our immune system react to it and why it failed to stop it and what nutritional supplement we can take to help our body overcome these health challenges.

I only read the first few chapters and I feel that I have gained a lot in terms of how to be healthy and stay that way. Basically, most of our health challenges are caused by our body inability to neutralize the many free radicals that is found everywhere, including inside our own body. But this does not mean that we stuff ourselves with antioxidants. It is only part of the supplementation we need to feel healthy. To know more, I urge readers to explore the book. But like I mention before, do your own research, try to verify what you have read. But most imptly START supplementing wisely and effectively NOW.

Cheers!